As You Like It: Act 3, Scene 5

5. Falls: lets fall. 6. But first begs: without first asking.

Enter SILVIUS and PHEBE.

SILVIUS1Sweet Phebe, do not scorn me; do not, Phebe;2Say that you love me not, but say not so3In bitterness. The common executioner,4Whose heart the accustom'd sight of death makes hard,5Falls not the axe upon the humbled neck6But first begs pardon: will you sterner be7Than he that dies and lives by bloody drops?

11'Tis pretty, sure, and very probable,12That eyes, that are the frail'st and softest things,

13. Who shut their coward gates on atomies:i.e., which shut to protect themselves from the smallest speck of dust.

13Who shut their coward gates on atomies,14Should be call'd tyrants, butchers, murderers!15Now I do frown on thee with all my heart;16And if mine eyes can wound, now let them kill thee:

17. counterfeit to swound: pretend to swoon.

17Now counterfeit to swoon; why now fall down;18Or if thou canst not, O, for shame, for shame,19Lie not, to say mine eyes are murderers!20Now show the wound mine eye hath made in thee:21Scratch thee but with a pin, and there remains22Some scar of it; lean but upon a rush,

73For I am falser than vows made in wine:74Besides, I like you not. If you will know my house,75'Tis at the tuft of olives here hard by.76Will you go, sister? Shepherd, ply her hard.77Come, sister. Shepherdess, look on him better,

78-79. though all the world could see, / None could be so abused in sight as he:i.e., even if the whole world were looking at you, only Silvius would be so deluded as to think you are worth looking at.

78And be not proud: though all the world could see,79None could be so abused in sight as he.80Come, to our flock.

81. Dead shepherd:i.e., Christopher Marlowe. now I find thy saw of might: now I understand the full force of your saying. 82. 'Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?': This line is quoted from Marlowe's Hero and Leander, a well-known narrative poem about Leander, who swims the Hellespont to visit his beloved Hero.

81Dead Shepherd, now I find thy saw of might,82'Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?'

86. Wherever sorrow is, relief would be:i.e., wherever sorrow is felt, a desire to give relief should follow. In other words, "If you were really sorry, you'd do something about it." 89. Were both extermined: would both be banished.

86Wherever sorrow is, relief would be:87If you do sorrow at my grief in love,88By giving love your sorrow and my grief89Were both extermined.

90. Thou hast my love: is not that neighbourly?: Phebe is talking about the kind of love Christ meant when he said, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself" (Mark 12:31, KJV). Of course, that's not at all the kind of love Silvius wants from Phebe.

PHEBE109Think not I love him, though I ask for him:110'Tis but a peevish boy; yet he talks well;111But what care I for words? yet words do well112When he that speaks them pleases those that hear.113It is a pretty youth: not very pretty:114But, sure, he's proud, and yet his pride becomes him:115He'll make a proper man: the best thing in him116Is his complexion; and faster than his tongue117Did make offence his eye did heal it up.118He is not very tall; yet for his years he's tall:119His leg is but so so; and yet 'tis well:120There was a pretty redness in his lip,121A little riper and more lusty red122Than that mix'd in his cheek; 'twas just the difference

123. constant: uniform. mingled damask: mixture of red and white. 124-125. had they mark'd him / In parcels:i.e., had they noticed every little detail about him.

123Between the constant red and mingled damask.124There be some women, Silvius, had they mark'd him125In parcels as I did, would have gone near126To fall in love with him; but, for my part,127I love him not nor hate him not; and yet128I have more cause to hate him than to love him: